Taliban Shrugs at Video of Marines Urinating on Corpses

A sign of the times, perhaps, in Afghanistan: When a video appears purporting to show Marines urinating on the corpses of Afghans, the U.S. military denounces it more strongly than the Taliban does. So far, Afghan reaction overall has been muted, and now there might not be insurgent propaganda to fan outrage. Could Afghans — even Afghan militants — be that jaded with the U.S. after 10 years of war?

The video has all the ingredients of a scandal. It shows, apparently, desecration of corpses by laughing service members. It’s gone viral. And it occurs in the context of a grueling war that requires Afghan support.

But the missing ingredient, so far, is Afghan outrage. There have yet to be protests, let alone violence — although it’s possible that will take time to build. Yet just this past spring, Afghans rioted in response to a preacher who burned Korans in Florida, which occurred shortly after photos surfaced of a rogue U.S. “kill team” posing with their gruesome trophies. Twenty people died in those riots after protesters in Mazar-e-Sharif stormed a United Nations compound.

The U.S. isn’t taking any chances. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called the video “utterly deplorable.” Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos called it “wholly inconsistent with the high standards of conduct and warrior ethos that we have demonstrated throughout our history.” Added the U.S. military command in Afghanistan, “This disrespectful act is inexplicable and not in keeping with the high moral standards we expect of coalition forces.” There’s even a criminal inquiry, run by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, to determine if the video is authentic — and if so, whether the urination violates the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

To be fair, the Afghan government called the apparent Marine urination “simply inhuman” and called for trials and punishment. But it conspicuously didn’t blame the entire U.S. military for the video, nor did it call upon the NATO command to make any tactical changes — even while President Hamid Karzai has been campaigning for an end to night raids by U.S. commandos.

Perhaps the outrage is taking longer to build than usual. Even so, that would amount to a tragic popular judgment on the war: Afghans — who’ve lived through 30 years of war with Russians, Americans, and rival Afghan factions — just might not be so surprised by a videotaped outrage anymore.

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